Skógar to Skaftafell: Iceland tour Day 11

Travelling from Skógar to Skaftafell involved catching the 13:42 Strætó bus, which allowed time in the morning for a horse ride and an attempt on the beach.

Icelanders are proud of their Icelandic horses, brought by settlers from Norway a thousand years ago. No other types of horse are bred in the country and importation is banned to avoid bringing in diseases to which the Icelandic horses have never before been exposed. I arranged an hour long beginner's tour at the nearby farm of Ytri-Stógar. Fortunately my horse was very obedient, unlike some I have tried to ride in the past, and I had the impression that I was not as far off the ground as I would have been on a British and American horse. She certainly crossed rivers more easily than me, not having to remove her shoes. The lady leading my tour, granddaughter of the farm's owner, said they mainly reared sheep and a few cows. Hay was the only crop.

After the ride there was some time left to walk to the beach. Unfortunately it was further than I imagined. The coastal plain was very wide here. Inland it is farmed or is covered in lupins, nearer the sea it is an expanse of small, rounded black stones. I never quite reached the sea, finding the black expanse somewhat tedious I returned to the Skógarfoss hotel for some lunch before my bus was due. 

Getting onto the bus I was a little sad to leave the hotel where I had stayed for the last three nights and where the staff were getting to know me. I had bought a ticket for the bus on the company's "app". While the app had some nice features, like showing where the bus was in real time, the ticket section confused me. When I tried to "show the ticket", part of the screen just showed a picture of me looking puzzled at the screen. At first I thought it was trying to take a photo of me, but apparently it is so the driver can see a picture of himself when you show him your ticket. Curious.

There was also a change of bus at the town of Vik to confuse me. A minibus took us few travelers east and I was deposited on route at the Skaftafell campground. This was a well organised site with good facilities including a café and gift shop  although only a limited selection of groceries were for sale and they closed at 6:00 pm. I had planned to stock up with food at the mini market at the Skaftafell petrol station, but that turned out to be some distance away, and after I spent 40 minutes walking along the road in its direction, I gave up and returned to camp. Nevertheless I did gain some good views of the Skaftafellsjökull glacier from the road and a path out from the campsite.

My horse, not sure what she is thinking.

The sea most be somewhere near here.

Skaftafellsjökull glacier.

Sóljeimajökull glacier tour: Iceland trip Day 10

As a change today I went on an outing run by an organisation called "Mountain Guides". In the morning I kayaked on a lake in front of a glacier, and in the afternoon I walked on top of it.

On my map the Sólheimajökull glacier parking lot, where my "experience" was to begin, seemed close to where I was staying at Skógar, but the map had a small scale, it was 11.7 kilometres away. There being no other option I could find to arrive by 9:00 am, I had a 2 1/2 hour walk. Although I tried to hitch-hike the three cars that passed me did not stop. But do not feel sad for me, the walk was fast being on tarmac roads, and birds cries distracted me. My app detected the sound of godwits, with their long straight beaks, and common ringed plovers, with, as you might expect, a black and white ring around their neck. I also spotted oyster catchers, black headed gulls and whimbrel with their long curved beak. There were plenty of other small, unidentified brown birds eyeing me.

The melting glacier had created a lagoon in front of its snout and our group of nine was able to canoe around blocks of ice that had separated from the main body. The ice had a dusting of black ash from the 1918 eruption of Katla, as well as black ash bands not doubt from earlier events. At its surface the ice had a "jigsaw" or "crazed" quality, where bubbles of gas, expanding in the heat, created multiple fractures, which makes the ice look white. Just above the waterline, at some locations, there was blue ice, an attractive shade which is its true colour.

In the afternoon we donned helmets, harnesses and crampons, picked up an ice axe, and walked onto the glacier. We saw crevasses (deep cracks in the ice caused by the centre of the glacier moving faster than the sides), deep drains (where water had melted the ice to create a very deep hole) and dirt cones (an accumulation of ash insulated a patch of ice so that it melted more slowly than that surrounding it, ultimately creating a cone). We listened to the guide's explanations while tramping around the glacier pressing our crampons firmly into the ice on each step as instructed.

All in all a most instructive and fun day.

Canoeing in front of the glacier. 

Climbing onto the glacier. 

Looking down from glacier, the lagoon and river in the distance, then the front of the glacier where the black ash has been concentrated as the glacier has melted, and in the foreground, whiter ice higher up

 

Rest day at Skógar: Iceland tour Day 9

A day of rest and catching up today at Skógar, 

Much of the day was spent struggling to plan and book things on the internet using my phone. Many places and tours now seemed booked up for the next week or so making planning more arduous as I searched for alternatives. Although I am told there are fewer people around due to the Covid 19 pandemic, it seems this was anticipated by cutting the number of tours and facilities available. In consequence they fill up fast.

However, I did revisit the Skógarfoss waterfall, looking up from its base this time through the clouds of spray, and visited the nearby folk museum. This had a collection of many old things formerly in common use, everything from churns for making butter to former farm buildings and old telephone exchanges.

Leg of lamb for dinner tonight with a sauce reduced over several hours to make it rich, sweet and flavoursome.

Skógarfoss waterfall

Parlour in farmhouse as it was in the 1900's

Fimmvörðuháls trail: Þórsmörk to Skógar: Iceland tour Day 8

Today I climbed a thousand metres to two of the newest volcanoes on Iceland, then descended to Skógar passing ever more spectacular waterfalls.

Rose early to a fine day and was soon climbing up the snow capped massif that separates Þórsmörk from the sea. Some steep climbs among the massive rock formations. Initially the sides of the mountain were clothed in green, I admired the pink orchids, higher up the greenery was replaced by black lava and ash and later by white snow. Some steep drops beside the path and a narrow ridge helped keep my attention. 

Near the highest point the trail passed two summits surrounded by snow, the result of eruptions in 2010 that filled the skies with volcanic dust, grounding aeroplanes. I climbed the loose ash and clinker which formed their peaks, no signs of activity now. A few kilometres after the trail went by one of the mountain huts. I stopped to buy a coke and Mars bar. On leaving I tried to open the door outwards. The warden laughed and said all the doors in Iceland opened inwards, in case snow was piled up outside.

Going down, the sea in front of me, the trail was at first inauspicious, following a vehicle track used to bring supplies. It must be a pretty tough vehicle given the size of the jagged rocks in the track. I disturbed a ptarmigan which wandered away. After a bridge the trail followed a smaller path by the first of a series of cascades. As I walked down the waterfalls became progressively bigger, swollen by water entering from streams each side. Each waterfall seemed to be bigger and more dramatic than the previous one as water roared over lips of lava into deep ravines. The final waterfall was Skogarfoss, attracting the attention of many visitors. In the cliffs beside the falls birds were nesting or circling, fulmars according to my guide. I am now in the Hotel Skogarfoss, having showered and washed some clothes I am feeling a little cleaner after several nights camping, and a little fuller after a "viking burger".

If you hike the Langavegur trail, then continuing on the Fimmvörðuháls, also called the Skógar trail is recommended for its combination of mountainous terrain, proximity to ice caps, volcanic interest and waterfalls. Walking down towards the sea marked an appropriate end of a long distance walk.

Lower down the steep sides of the mountain were green.

There were one or two exciting sections such as the path along this narrow ridge.

High up the landscape was monochromatic, the ice cap partly hidden by cloud.

Just one of the many waterfalls on the path down.

Laugavegur trail, Iceland: Some Comments

National Geographic among others claims this is one of the 20 best trails in the world, which makes it popular with many nationalities even in the time of Covid 19. It certainly has some unusual landscape, the remains of volcanism on a grand scale, with steaming, smelly fumaroles. There is little sign of any human activity in the majestic panoramas, bar a few basic huts for hikers and some vehicle tracks. Then there is the thrill of the wading through fast flowing rivers, with the ever present risk if toppling over.

On the downside there is quite a bit of walking across plains of black ash, the sight of small green trees around Þórsmörk is a welcome relief for the eyes. In general the path is clear with red then blue markers, although across the snow you have to rely on your GPS or follow the footsteps of the people ahead of you.

Although four days is usually recommended for walking the trail, this is at a leisurely pace, starting out at 10:00 am and finishing in good time. Great if you are with friends and want time to catch up with them, but for a lone walker it means arriving at a destination early and then wondering what to do. Walking it in two days was right for me, requiring an effort but feeling I deserved the reward of a coffee and cake at Þórsmörk. 

Laugavegur Trail: Álftavatn to Þórsmörk: Iceland tour Day 7

River crossings were the theme of today, wading through achingly cold water.

Mist enclosed the campsite this morning, my tent wet as I packed it up. Not the earliest on the trail today, at least one party was ahead of me when I started out at 7:00 am. Reaching Emstrur huts at 11:30 am, by which time the mist had lifted, I decided to continue on to Þórsmörk (note that the funny letter þ is sounded as "th"). 

Some of the rivers today were shallow enough to splash through, others so powerful that bridges had been erected, but three required removing my boots and wading through. The water, which rose to my knees, was so cold it felt like being burnt, the current was strong making it difficult to place my poles in front of me. Such crossings took time as I first had to make sure my camera and other valuables were all in dry bags in case I fell in. Then I had to take off my boots, socks and zip off my trouser legs to convert them into shorts (if there were no onlookers who might be offended by the sight of my underpants I just removed my trousers as it was quicker). My boots were tied onto my rucksack and I put on my water crossing shoes, a light pair of running shoes designed to shed water through their sides. On the other side of the river I repeated the whole performance in reverse with the addition of drying my legs with a towel. A fairly slow process.

Much of the first part of the day was across black stony plains with lumps of frothy basalt, the bubbles permanently set in stone. Later, things became greener, at first a plain dotted with purple thyme and some red grasses, then as I approached Þórsmörk, small birch trees, with an undergrowth of blue geraniums and buttercups. A welcome contrast after the bleak treeless plains and black ash mountains I had been walking through which reminded me of slag heaps, piles of waste from coal mines or blast furnaces. Perhaps that is unfair as there were some impressive gorges or chasms today, lined with black lava, the water crashing through, dirty with sediment. Elsewhere there were cliffs showing the vertical columns formed when lava cools and contracts. 

Þórsmörk is an area containing three clusters of huts. I made a diversion of a few kilometres to one of them, Húsadalur, to enjoy a cup of coffee, soup and some salad, as I had been missing fresh vegetables. Having planned to walk to Skógar tomorrow I crossed a gravel clogged, braided river, in part on a wobbly bridge on wheels to reach the campsite at Básar. My tent is in a lovely spot, among the little birch trees on an area of proper grass, not something I have seen much of in the last few days.

One of the river crossings.

Emstrur huts.

Green trees at last, if rather small.

Mobile bridge, I suppose it is stored in the winter and wheeled out to wherever the main channel is in the summer.

Laugavegur trail: Landmannalaugar to Alftavatn: Iceland tour Day 6

Steaming fumaroles, snow and mountains, a day walking through a primeval landscape.

I began early at 6:30 am, about three hours before most other hikers it seems, so I walked for a few hours in splendid solitude, even the wind was still. I thought I heard voices, but on stopping and turning there was no-one there, maybe ghosts from the sagas, killed in some blood feud, outlawed to the highlands, or maybe just the squeaking of my rucksack. 

Throughout the day I passed areas of steam belching from the ground with a strong sulphurous smell. Sometimes it was from pots or patches of boiling water. Encrustations of yellow sulphur, and red or grey deposits often surrounded these fumaroles. Nearby moss was bright green. Near the start of my day's walk the surrounding mountains were fawn to red with an occasional tongue of blocky, black lava. Later, the ash turned black. On reaching higher ground I was increasingly walking across snow, following the tracks left by many others, people I was now meeting on the trail, exchanging a polite "hello". I stopped at the Hrfantinnusker hut for a Pepsi and Mars bar, eating it in the sun watching people just starting their day's walk. Nearby a few people were unpacking an enormous amount of food from a 4x4 with grossly outsized tyres. I presumed it was for one of the organised tours which walk the trail, with food and luggage delivered for them at the huts.

Later, before a steep descent, I looked into distant valleys, the landscape seemed mythical, ancient untouched by man with roads and buildings and street lights. Reaching my intended destination of Álftavatn hut I was disappointed, but not surprised to discover that the "restaurant" was to open in three days time. I am now camped by the river, among miniature flowers, with a view of the lake ("vatn" means lake) and snow streaked mountains. A harlequin duck and its mate are sitting at the water's edge preening themselves.

Smelly, steaming fumaroles 

Crossing patches of snow, note the two hikers ahead of me.

No signs of human activity.